Miner: Difference between revisions
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Added note about mass locking in Asteroid fields. |
Updated refinery, added tips, minor grammatical. Also corrected the previous update on increase yields from prospector drones. I tested this and found that it will always increase your yields by a factor of exactly 2. Please verify. |
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* [[Limpet Controller/Prospector|Prospector Drone]]
** Prospecting allows miners to view the mineral content of an asteroid even from a distance.
** Prospecting asteroids before mining
** These require limpets to work (Purchase limpets at any munitions store)
==Locations==
Mining is currently possible at asteroid belts or planetary rings which are not Icy, although it is the most profitable in a Pristine Metallic area. Asteroid belt points of interest can only be scanned at very close range (
You can fly to asteroids (either clusters or planetary rings) in supercruise, just like any destination within a system. When you have arrived, you will see a number (from a handful to many dozens) of asteroids, which you can then mine. A good starting spot for mining are systems with industrial economies.
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'''Fragmenting'''
Make sure to bind a Mining Laser (preferably in its own firing group) just like you would do with any other weapon in game. Fly within range (being
Select the fragment of rock as a target. They are quite small and hard to detect visually but do show up as white contacts on your radar. When selected, you get details of the contents of the fragment, e.g. Bauxite (9.7%) Coltan (21.2%). Note that the mineral name which shows up first in the HUD doesn't necessarily represent the most valuable mineral! The mineral content is how much of a ton of cargo can be extracted from the fragment. E.g. if you scoop and process three 35% Indite shards you end up with 1 ton of Indite. Fragments range in mineral content from ~5% to ~65%. Asteroids contain 1 to 3 different minerals while fragments from the asteroids contain up to 2 of those minerals.
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Collecting fragments can be done with a cargo scoop or a collector limpet drone.
To collect with a cargo scoop, first engage your scoop (just like you would with your landing gear or hardpoints), then fly slowly towards the target. Upon engaging the Cargo Scoop you will find that a blue box will have appeared on the lower left of you HUD. On there you should, if pointing at the rock, see an icon in the
Asteroid fragments are more difficult to scoop than regular cargo, as their movement is more complex (not to mention the fact that you want to avoid hitting an asteroid while you're focused on scooping!) For this reason, it's advisable to use very slow speeds of 15 m/s while scooping. What's more, fragments will "decay" over time, meaning they slowly lose integrity until they disappear.
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'''Refining'''
Once a fragment enters your cargo hold, it will be deposited in the [[refinery]]. It can be accessed on the left panel of the cargo screen. The first bin is the depositing bin, where you will find your fragment.
Items that appear in the depositing bin will automatically "stack" into the refinery bins below if a refinery bin that already contains that mineral exists. It will also drop into empty bins automatically. If no bin is available, you will have to vent your refinery (see next paragraph). This will happen until the bin
You also have the option to "vent" the contents of your refinery. This is useful if you have a nearly-full refinery of bauxite and you find an asteroid with gold (or whatever else you prioritize). When no bin is available, minerals will not leave the depositing bin and will block it from accepting new fragments. When this happens you must either vent a refinery bin to free up space or vent the mineral from the depositing bin. NOTE: Doing this will destroy the mineral and you will not be able to recover it.
== Values ==
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* Jumping away into supercruise or hyperspace is also an option if you find yourself outmatched, although it might be frustrating having to abandon valuable asteroids you may have discovered. It is also important to remember that asteroid rings establish a mass-locking effect on your frame shift drive, necessitating that you clear the asteroid field to a sufficient distance before your FSD will begin charging. Asteroid belt clusters will not lock your FSD, but retain enough local mass to disrupt low-energy jumps. It is also necessary to align towards a sensible escape vector before your computer will engage the jump.
* Lastly, if you're in a system controlled by a non-
* Additional tip - in a RES, fly 30 or more km away from the RES marker. You will not see any NPCs spawn again unless you go closer. It does not seem to make any difference to the quality of rocks you mine.
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* Focus on mining highly valued metals or minerals (like Platinum, Palladium or Gold).
* Use collector drones to speed up efficiency.
* Use prospector drones to double the yield of asteroid fragments.
* If the asteroid's fragments have low concentration (below ±15%), don't waste your precious time and try different one.
* Even if your cargo is full, you can still fill up the refinery to 100% per slot. When you return to a starport to sell your cargo, this frees up space and each full refinery slot will go into your cargo hold. Treat it as extra cargo space.
* Planets create massive shadows. Be sure to avoid mining in the shadow of the planet or turn up your gamma.
==Trivia==
* Added in the Beta 3 Update which went live on October 28th, 2014.
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